ey please." With his son, however,
he employed the diplomacy he reserved for important occasions and,
adopting a quiet tone, discussed the whole matter.

In the first place the marriage was not a brilliant one as regards
birth, wealth, or rank. Secondly, Prince Andrew was no longer as young
as he had been and his health was poor (the old man laid special stress
on this), while she was very young. Thirdly, he had a son whom it would
be a pity to entrust to a chit of a girl. "Fourthly and finally," the
father said, looking ironically at his son, "I beg you to put it off for
a year: go abroad, take a cure, look out as you wanted to for a German
tutor for Prince Nicholas. Then if your love or passion or obstinacy--as
you please--is still as great, marry! And that's my last word on it.
Mind, the last..." concluded the prince, in a tone which showed that
nothing would make him alter his decision.

Prince Andrew saw clearly that the old man hoped that his feelings, or
his fiancee's, would not stand a year's test, or that he (the old
prince himself) would die before then, and he decided to conform to his
father's wish--to propose, and postpone the wedding for a year.

Three weeks after the last evening he had spent with the Rostovs, Prince
Andrew returned to Petersburg.

Next day after her talk with her mother Natasha expected Bolkonski all
day, but he did not come. On the second and third day it was the same.
Pierre did not come either and Natasha, not knowing that Prince Andrew
had gone to see his father, could not explain his absence to herself.

Three weeks passed in this way. Natasha had no desire to go out anywhere
and wandered from room to room like a shadow, idle and listless; she
wept secretly at night and did not go to her mother in the evenings. She
blushed continually and was irritable. It seemed to her that everybody
knew about her disappointment and was laughing at her and pitying her.
Strong as was her inward grief, this wound to her vanity intensified her
misery.

Once she came to her mother, tried to say something, and suddenly began
to cry. Her tears were those of an offended child who does not know why
it is being punished.

The countess began to soothe Natasha, who after first listening to her
mother's words, suddenly interrupted her:

"Leave off, Mamma! I don't think, and don't want to think about it! He
just came and then left off, left off..."

Her voice trembled, and she again nearly cried, b